R
eply to Bureaucracy
We are very grateful for your concern and your suggestions. The process of seeking help has been as follows:
First, we contacted our constituency’s Member of Parliament. The MP immediately reached out to our national government’s foreign affairs department. The foreign affairs department told us to contact the Canadian Embassy in China. The Embassy told us to contact the Consulate in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou Consulate said they had no way to help and told us to find a Chinese lawyer. The Chinese lawyer took us to a Chinese government department, and the Chinese officials only gave us one sentence — “suspected job-related crime” — and then told us to leave.
And that was the end of it.
It sounds ridiculous, but it is the truth.
We very much want Chinese government officials to answer two questions:
First, how is it possible for us — two underage foreign citizens — to have committed any kind of “job-related crime” in China?
Second, in the absence of any evidence, is imposing restrictions on the personal freedom of underage foreign citizens considered a form of kidnapping?
Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to demand answers to these questions from them. We earnestly ask our national government to ask the Chinese government these two questions on our behalf.
At the same time, we suggest that our government issue a travel warning to all citizens. If we could have known in advance that a certain country’s government might place restrictions on foreign minors, I believe no reasonable person would allow their children to enter such a country.
At the inauguration ceremony of our country’s head of state, they all swear to protect the people of our nation.
When the personal freedom of our citizens is restricted overseas, it is understandable for them to bear the corresponding consequences if they have indeed violated local laws. However, as innocent minors, we are simply asking our own embassies and consulates to help us ask the local government one question: “What evidence and legal basis is there?” If they do not dare—or are unwilling—to even ask this question on our behalf, all we can feel is sorrow.
I spent 1 year under”house arrest” in China, basically they stopped me from leaving to go back to UK because they thought I was involved in espionage, but I could essentially travel almost any city freely in China.
Having not seen my family for 3 years it was surely stressful , especially when I had to use a VPN to video call my family (which I hardly did anyway). The British Embassy did nothing to help lol
I suggest you find a gym to keep yourself active, and take up work as an ESL teacher (even at 17 there’s desperate suburban nurseries willing to hire you as a Canadian ESL teacher) or get a business partner to sign you one just use a copy of your passport and they can get things sorted, since the government wants to keep you there. It’s best to work for some cash in hand so you have some savings for when you can finally leave. Do some Twitch/Kick Livestreams with VPN as well, make your money because there’s nothing any government will do to try and help unfortunately. There’s also another route which is smuggle yourself and your family on to small freight route cargo ship but this is risky.
Try to contact the Canadian news outlets since u guys lived in Canada for the most time and see if they could help out otherwise praying for your safety 💕
My girlfriend is Chinese and she was born in that province. She goes to university in Shanghai and might be able to help out. If there is any way I can help or she can help, just let me know.